<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Surrender by ellie_kat89</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25478863">Surrender</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellie_kat89/pseuds/ellie_kat89'>ellie_kat89</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Battle of Endor, F/M, Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, Lekku sex play, Smut, maybe slight xenophilia, mentions of the Mandalorian, smut in chapter 3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:34:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,417</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25478863</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellie_kat89/pseuds/ellie_kat89</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As night falls over the Forest Moon of Endor and the Rebels celebrate their victory in battle, Ahsoka and Rex realize some things about life and how they want to be living it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anakin Skywalker &amp; Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>209</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Surrender</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Chapter One</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>All life is an experiment. The more experiences you make the better.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>-Ralph Waldo Emerson  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Bon fire smoke curls through the night air. Her sensitive montrals picking up singing and other various sounds of merriment from several leagues away. She knows that celebrations must be moving throughout the galaxy as news of their immense victory spreads. The war is far from over but the Battle of Endor is the best victory the rebels could have ever hoped for. The force, for what feels like the first time in a life time, feels <em>free, </em>no longer filled with the empty, oily darkness that had permeated it for so long. The Emperor and Darth Vader are dead. For all this, she does not know how she feels. Her conflicting, confused emotions are the only thing that she can focus on at the moment.</p><p> </p><p>Ahsoka Tano breathes in deeply and lets the breath out slowly. Luke Skywalker had returned to the Forest Moon of Endor and with him he had brought the corpse of his father, her once beloved master. She had only met Luke briefly, just before the battle was to begin. She had been introduced to him and he knew she had once been a Jedi, but he did not know her particular history.</p><p> </p><p>She hears laughter break out amongst the revelers and she focuses on the scene before her. Rex is regaling several younger soldiers with tales of the Clone Wars and she feels a smile twitch on her face before it recedes. She had missed her friends so much in the years that she had been forced to stay in hiding after Ezra had saved her life. Separation from Rex had been particularly difficult, but then reuniting with him had not been what she had imagined. They didn't seem to know how to act around each other anymore. They had grown <em>close </em>during the times they were both either on the Ghost or at the base on Atollon.</p><p> </p><p>Ahsoka squeezes her eyes shut and remembers with almost perfect clarity one night on base, shortly before she left for Malachor. They had been reminiscing about their past, all of the good times that they had even during war. There had been alcohol – just enough to lower long standing inhibitions – and one thing had led to another, and Ahsoka thought it had been a long time in coming. <em>A kiss</em>. That's how it had started, his mouth slanting over hers, searching and experimenting, trying to find the right rhythm. <em>She had liked the feeling of his beard against sensitive skin. </em>And then her memory is a blur of sensation. <em>Her in his lap, his body between her thighs, straddling him. His lips on her lekku, his hands on her hips, </em><em>guiding and moving because his body was </em>inside<em> of hers. </em></p><p> </p><p>Ahsoka shivers and shifts in place, longing for that again and at a loss for how to get it back. Returning to the present she watches the scene for a long moment, listening as Rex talks about the Battle of Christophsis. Most of the Ghost family is there as well. Little Jacen Syndulla is dozing on his mother's lap as Hera listens to the stories as well, leaning against a fallen log on the forest floor. Zeb is close by as well, with Kallus beside him.</p><p> </p><p>The Clone Wars feels like a life time ago in some respects, almost like it had happened to completely different people. Hearing a rustling from not far away she watches as Luke breaks through the vegetation. The main camp is only a minute's walk or so to the south where Princess Organa and General Solo are celebrating with their crew. She watches as Luke pauses for a moment, listening.</p><p> </p><p>“And then, Commander Tano brought the wall down around General Skywalker,” Rex brings his hands together with a load, reverberating <em>slap</em>, “crushing the combat droids to dust while leaving the General safe, perfectly encircled the by the cannon blast that had been left behind when we had retreated.”</p><p> </p><p>Rex is a good story teller but her eyes are on Luke as they listen and she sees his jerk of surprise at his father's name. She can easily feel his shock and wonderment in the force. His force signature is as bright as a star, and in that moment she is caught in his gravitational pull. She pushes off of the tree she was leaning against and walks towards him, stopping to stand beside him, listening to the rest of the story.</p><p> </p><p>“With the shield generator destroyed, I ordered the cannons to fire on the Seppie tanks and we blew the clankers to smithereens. Mean while General Kenobi captured the Seppie leader and the scum surrendered.” Rex falls into silence for a moment before he and his listeners fall into easy conversation, several people asking questions.</p><p> </p><p>Ahsoka feels Luke's eyes on her and she turns, waiting for him to speak. She doesn't have to wait long.</p><p> </p><p>“You knew my father,” he speaks at last, it's a statement more than a question. She watches his eyes flicker for a moment to the right, looking towards the way he had come, peering through the trees to something that she cannot see but is beginning to sense.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, very well. He was my master. I –,” she pauses, a lump in her throat, wondering what to say. “I loved him dearly, he was like my older brother, my family.”</p><p> </p><p>On the wind, amongst the smell of damp green forest and acrid brush fire is another scent, one that she catches easily – the smell of burning plastic and electrical parts. Somewhere in the distance he has created a funeral pyre in the way of the Jedi of old, and on it is the body of Darth Vader. In the dark, Luke's light blue eyes are nearly black as he stares at her, the lights of several fires flickering over them.</p><p> </p><p>“You know what he became then?” Luke asks.</p><p> </p><p>Tears burn in the back of her eyes, but she won't allow them to spill.</p><p> </p><p>“It was something I suspected later on during the rebellion. We met and fought on Malachor – it was not pleasant. Afterwards I had a very difficult time accepting it.” It's all that she can stand to say to him. He looks <em>so much </em>like Anakin (especially dressed all in black as he is) that her heart aches with it.</p><p> </p><p>Luke nods and shifts, his eyes leaving her face to glance back towards the funeral pyre.</p><p> </p><p>“There was still good in him in the end. It was he that killed the Emperor and saved my life. Before he died Darth Vader became Anakin Skywalker once again,” he says, the last part in a soft whisper.</p><p> </p><p>So, he had succeeded where she herself had failed and she feels so conflicted that for a moment she can't breathe. Guilt, anger, joy, and sadness swarms through her belly. She tries to let it go, to expel the emotions into the force as she was instructed to do as a youngling, but she can't seem to let it all go. It clings to her stubbornly.</p><p> </p><p>“I am –,” Ahsoka is forced to clear her throat to continue, “I am glad that you were with him in the end then.”</p><p> </p><p>Luke nods. “He is at peace now, one with the force,” he pauses, seems to grapple with something for a moment before he continues. “Maybe at another time, a better time, I would like to speak to you about my father. I think you might be one of the few still alive that really knew him. If you don't mind.”</p><p> </p><p>“No, I don't mind, I would be happy too.” It's not completely a lie.</p><p> </p><p>“May the force be with you, Ahsoka Tano. Good night.” He gives her his hand and she takes it in turn, grasping his forearm tightly for a moment before letting go.</p><p> </p><p>“And may the force be with you as well, Luke Skywalker.”</p><p> </p><p>He smiles, a little tilting of his lips, and he walks away, continuing towards the camp he shares with his friends. Ahsoka watches him go and shivers as a cool wind blows through the trees, making them creek and rustle. The force is not restful here she realizes, it's nudging her in the direction of the pyre. She swallows and looks back at her little group, Rex is animatedly telling another story now – the campaign of Ryloth. Her eyes trace his handsome face for a second and makes a decision. She pivots, leaving the clearing and walks into the forest. She lets the force lead her deep into the forest, until the sounds of celebrations fade into nothing and the smell of Darth Vader's burning mechanical body becomes chokingly strong. Holding her breath, she steps into another large clearing and sees the pyre in the center. At one point the fire must have been very large but it's gone down now, leaving behind heavily smoking embers and the twisted, melted body in its center.</p><p> </p><p><em>This was a bad idea</em>, she thinks, wrapping her arms around her middle. She doesn't need to see this, doesn't need the closure. She has had years to accept that Anakin fell, <em>somehow </em>seduced by the dark side, and rose as Darth Vader. Some of the pain stems from not knowing <em>why. </em>How could he have fallen so far and so hard? Still though the fact remains, she left him and Vader is what he became.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly the force shifts, brightening and coalescing behind her and she senses a presence where there was not one before.</p><p> </p><p>“Hello Snips.”</p><p> </p><p>Ahsoka knows this voice, knows it so painfully well because she still hears it in her dreams and in the nightmares. Not knowing if it's going to be a curse or a gift, she turns around and faces her past. Anakin Skywalker stands there in the forest clearing, his hands clasped behind his back, patiently waiting for her reaction. He looks just as he did when he left her for Corescant and she continued onto Mandalore. His hair, his face, even his clothes are the same. Except he's not a solid thing but ghostly, shadowed in blue and <em>whispy</em>. His presence in the force is much as she remembers it being when he had still been her master, except it's so much brighter, more pure. The Dark Side is gone completely from him.</p><p> </p><p>He shifts, raising his arms to look with interest at his own hands, taking in his less than corporeal appearance. He chuckles and glances back up at her, a smile on his face. “Huh, Obi-Wan was right. What do you know.”</p><p> </p><p>In a life filled with bizarre things and happenings, this is perhaps the strangest of them all. “About what?” she chokes out, taking a staggering step back.</p><p> </p><p>Anakin's smile falters. “Sorry, I'm not very good at this.” He seems to sigh and begins to explain. “I heard Obi-Wan's voice as I was dying and he left me instructions and I followed them for a change. I became <em>this</em>.” He gestures at his ghostly form.</p><p> </p><p>“And what exactly are you?” she asks.</p><p> </p><p>“He called it a force ghost. My physical form is one with force but my consciousness remains,” he answered, shrugging as if to say <em>can you believe it</em>?</p><p> </p><p>At her silence, he shakes his head and gestures her forward. “Come, let's sit.”</p><p> </p><p>Ahsoka follows without really thinking about it, tracing his steps over to a fallen log on the other side of the clearing. They sit and remain in an uncomfortable silence for a moment before he finally breaks it.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm so sorry for hurting you, for what happened. I… I was a horrible fool,” he mutters, looking at her and then back at his own funeral pyre; he stares at it for a long, painful moment.</p><p> </p><p>It's then that she realizes that she's crying and she wipes the tears away from her face. She feels suspended outside of her own body, like she's watching this scene from somewhere else rather than being a part of it.</p><p> </p><p>“What happened to you?” she finally asks, voice broken. She points towards the smoldering pyre. “How did you become <em>that</em>?”</p><p> </p><p>Anakin's face twists in pain for a moment before it smooths and she sees him take a deep breath. “I made a choice and it was a bad one. I let myself be manipulated by someone that I believed I could trust. Palpatine used my weaknesses against me. I couldn't let go… couldn't face losing anyone I loved, even if it meant doing horrible, awful things,” he finishes in a pained whisper. His eyes are clenched tightly closed and he has turned away from the pyre, face pointed towards the ground, he can't seem to look at her either.</p><p> </p><p>She wants to touch his shoulder and even reaches up to do just that, before she changes her mind and lets her arm drop back to her side. She doesn't know what to say to him but knows that she can't give him her forgiveness, at least not yet, the wounds are still too raw, too new. Also, her guilt at leaving him is brought forth in his presence and right now she needs meditation in order to parse her emotions. They sit still for several moments before he suddenly turns towards her once more, his eyes wide in surprise.</p><p> </p><p>“You feel guilty, why do you have guilt? There is nothing for which you should have guilt,” he says, sounding bewildered.</p><p> </p><p>Ahsoka didn't realized she had been projecting so strongly. “I can't help but wonder what would have happened if I hadn't left you. If somehow I could have stopped you from falling.” It feels so freeing to finally say the words out loud.</p><p> </p><p>He shakes his head emphatically. “No, Ahsoka. That couldn't be further from the truth. In fact -,” he pauses, head tilted to the side, remembering back through the years. “It is better that you were not with me. I would have dragged you down as I fell, or I would have killed you.”</p><p> </p><p>Breath catches in her throat and for a moment she's transported back to Mortis. <em>You may never see your future if you remain his student. </em>That place had been like a dream or perhaps more like a nightmare, but still there were seeds of truth in those words from a “future” version of her. Ahsoka jerks when she feels a whisper of a touch on her shoulder and looks into the eyes of her old master. He's nothing but a spirit but still she can <em>feel </em>his hand on her shoulder just as if she were a padawan once more, and it settles something in her soul.</p><p> </p><p>“I have no right to ask anything of you but I will ask only one thing.”</p><p> </p><p>“What is it?” she inquires.</p><p> </p><p>He smiles warmly and she feels the whisper touch on her shoulder squeeze and then release. “No matter what Ahsoka, make sure you live a fantastic life; it's all I ever wanted for you.”</p><p> </p><p>What has her life been? First as a padawan she had been a soldier and then later as fulcrum she had been a rebel spy. There had never been time for a <em>life</em> or to even think about what kind of one she really wanted. Not until she had faced Darth Vader on Malachor and Ezra Bridger had pulled her through space and time to save her life did she feel that something had been missing from her existence. She had lived her life in hiding for so long….</p><p> </p><p>“Just be happy Snips,” Anakin says on a sigh, standing from the log, beginning to move away from her.</p><p> </p><p>She watches as his image begins to fade into the night, as if he hadn't really ever even been there. <em>Wait.</em> “Skyguy – I promise.”</p><p> </p><p>Anakin smiles. “One more thing Snips, tell Captain Rex hi for me.” Then he disappears completely from her sight with a raise of his hand as a goodbye. She's left behind with only the sound of the crackling, smoldering fire and her own beating heart as it thunders in her montrals.</p><p> </p><p>She stays in that clearing for several more minutes, getting her emotions and physical reaction to them under control. Coming to terms with the fact that she had just been speaking to Anakin's ghost is surprisingly easy, she had been able to feel him in the force after all – in fact she thinks she can still faintly. This wasn't a vision and she certainly hadn't hallucinated. She brushes whats left of the tears off of her face and stands as well from the fallen tree. She turns one last time towards Anakin's pyre, takes in the sight of it, and the meaning behind it. Darth Vader was ash and Anakin Skywalker has risen from those ashes.</p><p> </p><p>“Good bye Anakin,” she whispers and leaves the clearing at a steady walk, ready to resume her life – she had made a promise after all – and she planned on keeping it.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Chapter Two</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>-Grace Hansen</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Story time has been over for awhile but he remains where he had planted himself against the Ghost's hull after the end of the battle. It's not an uncomfortable position actually and from his vantage point he has a good view of the surrounding forest. One, it's the soldier in him that likes the position – it's defendable and two, he's waiting for Ahsoka to come back before he turns in. Rex saw her walk away into the forest and it certainly isn't a hard decision to wait for her. He is not worried about her per se (well maybe only slightly but those are his personal feelings), she's a Jedi after all (even though she would never call herself one) and she's more than capable of taking care of herself. Still though, he waits.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In some ways the silence and solitude is nice, it lets him relax fully after the battle, to recenter his mind. The battle had been relatively quick but dirty – as battles go – and he's had his fair share to know. Being able to even be part of General Solo's strike team had been a struggle in and of itself. Approaching General Solo had been one thing, getting him to agree to take him along had been another. The General hadn't been rude, incredulous maybe when Rex had first approached him, volunteering to be part of the team.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex blinks up at the starry night sky, before shutting them for a long moment, remembering.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>Well,” </em>the General had begun, somewhat uncomfortable.<em> “There are younger men – are you sure –.”</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex's reply had not been snappy but he had been quick to answer. <em>“I'm 36 years-old General, I am capable.” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>General Solo had looked at him, surprised, taking in his white hair and lined face. Rex had always found that honesty was the best policy. <em>“I have been a Rebel since before Yavin Sir, and I would like to join in this battle. To fight under a leader and for a cause of my own choosing.” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>You're a clone?” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>Yes Sir.” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The only thing General Solo had asked of him after that was to have a physical done by one of Alliance's medics. If they cleared him than Solo would have no problem with him coming along, would welcome him with the strike team. The last thing General Solo had said to him before walking away from this exchange had caught Rex unawares at the time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>Why me? After your years of experience as a soldier, why pick me as your leader?” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>You remind me of someone I used to know, a long time ago. My Jedi General.” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Han Solo had looked at him then with keen interest. <em>“And who was that?” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>Anakin Skywalker.”</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The General had chuckled at this, shaking his head, a quirk of a smile on his face. Saying something about knowing all about Skywalkers before walking away.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>On the ground of Endor's Forest Moon, Rex shifts on the ground and winces, his left hip is aching, perhaps sitting so long was a mistake. He may feel young, on the inside, but on the outside – the bit that people can see – he is anything but. Which is one of the reasons why the visit to the medic had been such an eye opening experience. He would never say that he purposefully <em>avoided</em> medics or healers, at least not until Wolffe had died at the Rebel base on Lothal. It had happened a year ago and Rex hadn't even known his brother had been sick until he had gotten word of his death, a handful of rotations later. His liver they had said – <em>old age</em> – wear and tear.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sitting down in the medical office while the young healer had taken various tests and readings, Rex would never admit it aloud, to anyone, but he had been scared. What would she reveal about him, about his own declining health? He felt no different, except the achiness in his muscles and pain in his joints, but what was potentially going on inside his body was a frightening thing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The medic seemed to know he was nervous because she had kept a friendly, cheerful attitude through out the encounter, even as he remained tensely silent. Then ten minutes after he had entered her cramped office, she was glancing at a read out of all the tests that had been completed. She had smiled at him and said <em>it looks like you are as healthy as a gundark, completely fit for duty. </em>It had floored him. Once he was over the shock and could open his mouth and seemingly create a string of coherent words he managed to tell her about the pain in several of his joints – about his left knee in particular.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The medic had squinted at him. <em>“Why didn't you say something sooner?” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>His tongue loosened he managed to tell her about his recent nervousness around healers after Wolffe's death. He felt that if Wolffe was gone that he probably didn't have long left either and he didn't want to hear that news. Saying it aloud had been nearly the biggest relief of his life. The medic shook her head and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. <em>“</em><em>How did your friend die?” </em>she had asked.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>His liver.” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>She gave him a healing stim for the joint pain and told him to come back in 30 rotations for another one. He thanked her profusely and turned to leave, but she stopped him at the door with one more question. <em>“If I can ask – did your friend drink alcohol to excess?” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex answered affirmatively. The healer had nodded understandingly - <em>“Just watch your intake Captain, and you should have no problem. </em><em>You've got many years left of life I believe.</em><em>” </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex's mind returning to the present, he lifted his hand and traced his fingers along the scar where Ahsoka had removed his chip. He hadn't had to live his life with the knowledge that he or his men had killed their Jedi, Wolffe had and as such he had drank to try to forget.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Feeling eyes on him, he opened his own and turned his head. Ahsoka is watching him from several feet away, shifting subtlety on the balls of her feet, as if contemplating something. He sits up straighter, and when he moves, she does too walking towards him with a steady, hip swinging gate – she seems determined about something but he doesn't know what. <em>She's beautiful</em>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hey kid,” he greets, grinning. Talking about the Clone Wars has brought back so many memories. Calling her 'kid' feels somewhat fitting, even though he knows that thereis nothing child like about her, a fact that he knows intimately.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She quirks her white brow markings at him and smiles back, gently kicking his booted feet. “Hello to you too Rexter.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He throws his had back and laughs at this, heart happy, she hasn't called him Rexter in years. Shaking her head at their antics, she sits down on the ground and in a move that surprises him, curls into his side, head resting softly against his chest. He sucks in a deep breath and looks down at her. Her head is tilted a certain way so that there is enough room for her montrals and as such he has a wonderful view of her cerulean eyes looking up at him expectantly. Rex is tired of fighting his love and desire for her and so he just sighs and wraps his arm around her shoulder, holding her tight to him. Ahsoka practically purrs in satisfaction and burrows in deeper, one leg curling over the top of his.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex can tell that she's happy for his affection but also now that she's so close to him, he can feel her trembling. “What happened out there?” he asks, fingers idly running softly up and down her sienna colored arm.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ahsoka stills and he can almost hear her brain whirring. “I saw Anakin. He spoke to me.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The forest seems to still as he tries to process this. <em>She had seen the General</em>? He knows from her own mouth that he had fallen to the dark side of the force – becoming Darth Vader and thus responsible for thousands of deaths.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“What do you mean?” he croaks.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ahsoka sits up slightly but stays very close to him, hands on his chest, fingers slightly digging into his camo uniform. “I spoke to Luke, Anakin turned back to the light side, saved his life, and killed the Emperor. I visited his funeral pyre and he appeared as a force ghost.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex stares. Through out most of his life he has seen Jedi do amazing, awe inspiring things with the Force. He has also seen wielders do extraordinary evil in its name as well. Perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, this isn't even that unusual – Rex has seen odder.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“He said to tell you hi,” Ahsoka says, letting out a small, rather amazed sounding giggle.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Holy fek. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well that's certainly something.” <em>An actual ghost telling him </em>hello. “If you see him again, tell him hello in return.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She laughs weakly and settles back against him and she is quiet for several seconds before speaking again. “I think that he is finally at peace now.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex knows how important this is to her, feels it in the way she tugs at his uniform, bringing herself even closer to him. She's nearly in his lap now and he certainly doesn't mind. He turns towards her as well, wanting her just as close as she seems to want him close to her. He brings his other arm up to cradle her cheek, blaster-calloused finger tips gently tracing the distinctive markings on her face.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“And now you are at peace too.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ahsoka nods, her hand coming up to lay over his. “Yes.” Rex nods, understanding. Wanting to touch him in turn, her slim fingers comb through his thick, well trimmed beard. He knows that not having any as a Togruta, human hair is a fascinating thing to her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They settle back down on the ground, she lying half on top of him as Rex stares up at the stars. Their closeness is a welcome thing, something that he has missed. Her mind seems to be going in a similar direction if her next words are anything to go by. “I missed you,” she whispers into the night.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His hand runs down her side, following the curves of her flesh through her dark gray battle dress and he feels her shiver against him. “I missed you too.” This is perhaps the biggest understatement he has ever uttered in his life. He thought her dead (they all did) for three years and his heart and soul has been broken and bruised from it. The thought stayed with him for years that if he had been there with her to watch her back, she would have lived. Then Ezra told him that he had actually saved her life, that she would be returning to them – but then she hadn't, not for another two years. When she did come back she had been different – otherworldly, ethereal almost. <em>Ahsoka the White,</em> some members of the Rebellion had taken to calling her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Why,” she begins, stopping to find the right words. “Why have we had such a hard time connecting?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He is honest with himself and knows it <em>had</em> started with him... and his broken heart; his distance has created a rift – not noticeable to their friends maybe – but Rex and Ahsoka know. Wolffe's death changed everything for Rex, or at least changed things in his mind and in his heart. He has found himself only able to focus on one thing – Ahsoka is a Togruta woman in her prime and he is an old clone with brothers dropping like flies. How can he love her, really <em>love </em>her when he could be dead in a year, maybe less? But now the medic's voice is reverberating through his head, has been since he had heard the words, forever changing his perspective. <em>Healthy as a gundark. Many years left of life. </em>Now that those years are within reach, kriffing hell does he ever want to live them with her, or at least beside her. He'll take anything. Whisper soft he tilts her head back and kisses her, keeps it chaste even as she makes a hungry noise in the back of her throat and pulls him closer. Everything has changed between them, the victory in battle, the peace he now finds in her eyes, the calm he feels in his heart.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He pulls back from her dark lips to look at her. “I've been di'kutla,” he speaks, thumb running slowly across her cheek to her plump lower lip.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ahsoka smiles brightly and playfully tries to nip his wandering thumb. “It hasn't only been you Rex.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“No, but it started with me,” he replies.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She's silent for a long, drawn out moment but she's not idle as she runs her slim fingered hands up his arms to around the back of his neck. “That may be true but can you tell me why?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex shakes his head. “Ahsoka, I'm so far from young that some days I can barely remember what it was like, and I've been a coward on top of it.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She snorts. “Rex, you've never been a coward a day in your life. And as for being young or not, I want you regardless.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He wants to argue about being a coward, thinking of Umbara and the years he spent hiding on Seelos while she fought and bled for the Rebellion. He thinks too of that moment several days after the Venator crash when they had both been hurting and confused, their lives torn asunder as they hid on some backwater moon. When she said they should split up, hide separately, and that her presence would put him in even more danger, he thinks he should have fought harder for them to stay together. <em>He'd loved her even then.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Instead of all that he settles for, “Whatever years I have left, I want them to be with you, if you'll have me.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She kisses him in reply, open mouthed and deep, curling one long leg around his hip, pulling them together, thigh to chest. It's enthusiastic, <em>passionate</em>. Her fingernails dig hard into his back when his lips leave hers, to kiss her neck and then down, lips brushing her sensitive left lek. His hands grasp her hips firmly and she wraps both legs around him; he thrusts <em>down </em>into the juncture between her thighs and she <em>keens. </em>Blood roaring in his ears (and very quickly to other places) he does it again – he wants more of that sound, and he is rewarded with a high pitched trill. Gasping for breath he gets up and pulls her along with him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“If we're doing <em>this </em>it's not gonna be in the dirt,” he says, holding out his hand for her to take.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She grins like a huntress, a little feral and takes his hand. “You know my people have mated in the high grasses of Shili for generations.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He laughs breathlessly and begins tugging her along towards the Ghost where there's (hopefully) an empty room and bunk. “There's nothing but a carpet of evergreen needles here – no soft, high grasses,” Rex says. They climb the ramp of the ship, their fingers tightly intertwined in both victory and surrender.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They disappear into the ship, the ramp rising behind them. Neither see it, too caught up in themselves and finally <em>living </em>to notice anything, but a figure watches them with a half smile, half grimace on his ghostlike face. Anakin Skywalker shakes his head bemusedly, glad that his friends are happy (he does wish though that he hadn't seen them in such a passionate embrace). He shoves his hands in his pockets and turns away to see Obi-Wan and Master Yoda standing several feet away in classic Jedi poses.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Ready to go, you are?” Yoda asks him, tapping his gimer stick on the forest floor.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anakin looks towards the direction of his children, safe and happy with their friends – he can sense them easily through the force although he cannot see them – and then back towards where the Ghost is parked. He can sense the greatness that Ahsoka's future holds and he is glad of that too (although he can't help but wish that he could be a part of it).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Can I ever come back? Once I leave?” he asks nervously.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Obi-Wan nods. “If they ever have need of you then yes you will be able to return and speak to them once more –” his old master steps forward, laying a translucent hand on his former padawan's arm – “but for now we must let them go. Let them find their own path.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anakin closes his eyes, lets the lightness of the force sweep through him; letting go has always been his greatest weakness but it will not be any longer, for in death Anakin Skywalker has found peace. He opens his eyes, ready. “Yes, I think I am.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Yoda hobbles forward and touches the edge of Anakin's sleeve. There's a long moment where nothing happens but then they glow brighter, white then blue again before they are simply gone, blinking out of existence in less than a second. The force hums where the Jedi Masters were just standing, gloriously in balance once more.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Chapter 3</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>to reach out eagerly and without fear for new and richer experience.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>-Eleanor Roosevelt</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They saw, nor met anyone as they walked through the Ghost's corridors, making their way to an empty cabin towards the back of the ship. Ahsoka was still breathing hard as she had been on her back out in the clearing. The blood was like fire rushing through her veins and she rubs her thighs together for some relief, squeezing Rex's hand; her people were always highly sensual beings, one of the main reasons there had been so few Togruta Jedi. Finding a mate was an important aspect in Togruti culture. Thankfully Ahsoka had found hers long ago, even if it had taken a long time for them to realize it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Stopping, Rex palms open a door and pulls her inside. It was one of the cabins that Hera would have given her on a mission, it was sparse but comfortable, and even better it was set far enough way from the main cabins for privacy. Rex turns toward her and she reaches out to touch him, putting her hands on his shoulders, feeling his desire, his <em>adoration</em>, through the force, strumming through the air like music. Ahsoka runs light hands down his arms, touching muscle through the thick cloth of his camo uniform. She takes his hands and puts them on her own hips, stepping into him, shivering as he pulls her close at the same time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I want your hands on me,” she tells him, voice low.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His arms curl around her in response, pulling her entirely flush against him and she can feel his erection against her. They kiss slow, but deep, searching for the rhythm they had found earlier. One of his hands leaves her hips to caress her back headtail before slipping under it to the touch the sensitive skin of her neck, holding her close. She keens against his mouth, over eager, and tugs frustratingly at the top of his uniform, finally succeeding at pulling it free from his pants. Ahsoka's hands touch the smooth, bare skin of his back and he pulls from her lips to breathe.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They're both touch starved and so when he runs seeking hands up her body to wrap them softly around her lekku, fingers caressing, her knees buckle and she falls into him. She shivers as he lays her down on the double bunk in the cabin spreading her legs so that he can kneel between them, heart pounding a mile a minute in her chest. Her lekku are throbbing pleasantly and she feels hot all over, skin stretched tightly over muscle and bone .</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When Rex slides shaking hands up her legs – actually he's so nervous he thinks it's a miracle he can even function – he pushes up the tight skirt of her battle dress at the same time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Rex, please,” she whispers as he squeezes her upper thighs before he pulls down her leggings – it feels like too much but not enough all at the same time. She arches off the bed, helping him remove the garments. While he throws the leggings on the floor behind him she pulls the top of her outfit off, throwing the glove-like battle dress away where it hits the cold, hard floor with a smack.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His gaze on her is a hot, physical thing and she reaches for him with both her hands and the force. Just like when they were together in bed years ago the force <em>sings</em> when they kiss, her bare body pressed against his clothed one. Lips locked, tongues searching, she wrestles with the upper part of his uniform until it's finally over his head and off. They have to stop kissing for her to accomplish it but it's well worth it because it is a very real physical ache that she has to feel his skin.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Ahsoka,” he moans her name when her hands ghost over his chest and abdomen, fingers tracing a scar that wasn't there last time they had laid together.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's a newer scar she can tell, completely healed but still pink and sensitive. It bisects his left pectoral muscle, a long, jagged thing that makes her wonder if he was even wearing armor when he got it. From the looks of it, he is lucky to be alive.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Later,” she says, when she is done memorizing the new scar with her fingers. “You can tell me about it later.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I will, it's a long story,” he replies, and chuckles darkly. “It's not a very funny one though.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She shakes her head and, with a deftness that could only come from the force, flips them, so that he's on his back and she's astride him. <em>Yes,</em> she thinks, grinding down on his erection in a tight figure eight, <em>I like this position</em>. She does it once more, making him groan loudly and curse in Mando'a, a word she remembers from her time with the men of the 501<sup>st</sup>, but does not know the meaning of. His hands grasp her hips tightly, dark, burnished brown against sienna and she revels in it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ahsoka backs off for a moment, lekku flushed and swinging, throbbing in time with her heart beat and the wet pulsing between her legs. She undoes his belt, pulling it free of its loops and unfastens his trousers, standing long enough to pull them off of his legs. Finally he is as naked as she is. Considering that she has not seen him like this in many years she finds that he has changed little. She can vividly remember seeing him shirtless when she was still just a padawan, she had been surprised at how lean he was without his armor on. Before the clones' metabolism kept them sinewy, compact even. But with age comes changes, as it is with all things. Now, while there's very little fat on him, he's just <em>solid</em>, sturdily built in a way that calls to some part of her firmly routed in Shili. <em>My mate is strong, my mate is capable.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I want you inside me,” she says, straddling his legs once more and reaching out to take his erection in hand. He's very hard, silky skin over steel and she strokes him several times – watching his skin move with her own hand's movements. She has never seen a Togruta male naked in life – has had no reason to. What she knows is only from educational materials and what Master Shaak Ti taught her years ago during her Akul hunt. Human males in comparison are bigger, straighter, without the small penile barbs on the shaft; as she had once heard a Twi'lek female say in a less than respectable club, <em>a lot more fun.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>She is enthralled with his reaction as he grunts and grips the sheets until his knuckles are white. She has a whole body shiver when he says in reply - “come here than Commander.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She follows Rex's orders, shifting up his body and lifting her hips, balancing on her knees with his cock still in hand. Taking a deep breath she places him at her entrance, folds parting easily by how wet she has become and with no other preamble begins to slide down. There is no resistance per se, just an incredible stretch as she lowers her hips, taking his entire length in one slow downward stroke. His calloused hands are back on her hips, holding her steady. She can feel his resistance in the force as well as see it in how tightly he's holding himself still, letting her adjust to his girth, not thrusting up into her as she knows he wants very badly to do.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When she's finally fully seated, hips flush against his, she lets out the breath she had been holding in a long, low moan. Ahsoka sags forward, hands coming up to rest on his chest, balancing herself.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Are you alright?” Rex asks after a moment, thumbs rubbing soft circles into her inner thighs as they tremble under his fingers.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Yes,” she breathes, realizing her eyes are closed and she opens them. Rex is looking up at her with desire and love clear in his gaze, she certainly doesn't need the force to tell her this. And with that she begins to move, rocking back and forth in tight circles, feeling him move inside her, touching and rubbing places that haven't been touched since he had been inside her last.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ahsoka whimpers a low keen as it becomes easier and easier, rocking faster as his hands guide her movements. He reaches up with one hand, caressing and squeezing her left breast, tweaking the dark sienna nipple until she keens again, pace stuttering for a moment. She's too overwhelmed to even be surprised when he leaves her breast to stroke her lek on the same side, mirroring the way she had stroked his cock. It's a feeling like no other, and her eyes roll up into the back of her head when he does it again, firmer this time, twisting his wrist at the right moment to make stars explode behind her eyes. It had been amazing when he had touched her there earlier but now that he's buried to the hilt inside of her it's thrice as good.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You trust me.” It's more a statement than a question because how can she not? But still she answers in the affirmative, realizing that she is only making the tiniest rocking motions over him. He bodily lifts her off of him, his cock falling from her with a wet plop. “On your knees Cyar'ika, and turn your back to me.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She does so, shaking all the while, still feeling his hand on her lek even though he is no longer touching it. In this position she feels extraordinary exposed and <em>submissive</em>, andshe quakes with it, moaning when he runs his hands up the back of her thighs and over her butt. He sweeps them up her back, stroking her skin.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“If I do anything you don't like, you're gonna tell me,” he says and she nods even though she can't actually imagine not liking anything he wanted to do.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He takes hold of both lekku and leads them carefully around so that they lay flat against her back. She shivers hard and digs her fingers into the mattress to keep herself upright, moaning something that might have been his name. In the position now that he wants her in, he takes himself in hand, and with his other hand on her hip he slides back into her. He thrusts a few times, first shallow and then deeper, letting them get a feeling for the change in angle and depth.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Please Rex,” Ahsoka groans, thrusting her hips back when he stills. Rex releases her hips and with careful hands takes hold of both lekku.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He can't actually thrust very well in this position, there's not enough leverage; but when he snaps his hips forward and then retreats, hands still wrapped around the appendages, Ahsoka keens in a high pitch he hasn't heard yet. For Ahsoka it feels like her world is being torn apart and then being put back together again. He's not fucking her hard, but it's steady and deep and with each thrust he rhythmically squeezes her lek, making rivers of electric sensation flow through her entire body. His hold is firm but never too tight, and he is not pulling so much as just gripping – after all this isn't some tale-head porno.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“That's it – good girl,” he mutters, gritting his teeth as her muscles begin to ripple and her keens are nothing more than a high pitched whine that may or may not contain his name.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She doesn't last a minute before her arms collapse as she comes violently, muscles spasming around him, while white hot light fills her entire being. Her top half crashes down onto the bunk and Rex grunts with surprise but follows her down, still on his knees but bent over her. He has to let go of one lek to support himself and puts his other hand down flat beside her on the bed. Like this he begins to thrust faster, harder – his hips slamming into her with renewed vigor as his orgasm becomes closer.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ahsoka can do nothing but hold on the sheets under her, her head and body buzzing with absolute sensory overload. It feels like he's everywhere, not only inside her body but in every single cell that makes up who she is. Rex lets go of her other lek and with nothing to hold them there they fall back into their normal position on the other side of her shoulders, curled around her face on the bunk, flushed with blood and hyper-sensitive.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex gives several more hard thrusts before groaning long and low, holding himself deeply within her as he comes. Like her, he falls to the bunk, arms shaky but he has the awareness to collapse beside her, breathing heavily. He gathers her into his arms and she turns, curling into him, throwing one long, tired leg over him, wanting to feel as much of her mate's skin against her own as she can. It's then that they realize, nearly at the same time, that there are tears on her face, a few still falling actually. Rex wipes them away with his thumbs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Did I hurt you?” he asks, brow furrowed with worry.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“No,” Ahsoka replies quickly, not wanting him to think that anything they had just done had hurt, because it had not. It had been phenomenal, mind blowing, a sun going supernova in the vastness of space. It <em>had </em>been a lot, both emotionally and physically, in fact she is still shaking as her body comes down from the high he had taken her too. She wonders if he realizes the implications of their love making – that there would be few long mated Togruta pairs who would engage in <em>lekku pulling</em>. “I loved it, it was just a lot.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He holds her tighter at this and with the barest whisper of a touch, traces a chevron marking on the lek that is pressed against his chest. Rex is silent for a moment, reverent really and Ahsoka realizes then that it was a powerful experience for him too. She reaches one hand up, still trembling ever so slightly and touches the scar on the side of his head where she had taken out his chip. Next she traces his eyes and then the neatly trimmed line of his white beard. He watches her all the while, his eyes growing heavy with nearing sleep.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>You are mine, and I am yours</em>,” she trills softly in Togruti.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rex doesn't know the exact meaning of the phrase but understands, perhaps from her soft, loving tone, their meaning all the same. His lips quirk in a tired smile and he chuckles softly. “Sleep now Commander… <em>Ahsoka</em>. We both deserve it.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She agrees, smiling at the use of the word commander and then the way he said her name. They both settle and he falls asleep first, entering dreamland surprisingly fast. Ahsoka finds that she likes this, the thought that she (and their shared actions) have worn him out. It takes her a bit longer to fall asleep, the buzz in her body calms and she rubs her thighs together slightly, feeling the dull ache between them. Even now she can still feel where his hands had held her lekku, knows that she will likely feel it even tomorrow but she likes this too.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ahsoka falls asleep with a smile on her face, one arm wrapped around her mate. <em>Victory</em>, she thinks – in more ways than one, is so sweet.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>